grilled chicken fajita salad

Meet my Grilled Chicken Fajita Salad… it is crave-worthy delicious. It is so easy because the chicken and vegetables are cooked on the grill and then loaded onto the salad, which is tossed with a creamy avocado dressing. It is Low-Carb and Gluten-Free! I also have a couple of tricky (good tricky, not bad:) marinating and grilling techniques that are going to knock your socks off!

I originally shared this recipe on April 18, 2013. It included a giveaway which is now closed. I have updated the images and some of the text today.

I love salad month for one reason alone. I love salad. Do you know that about me? I eat huge salads. Like MAJORLY big salads all the time. I like to make a salad in a mixing bowl, then eat the entire thing. Just me… I have a problem, I know. My mom tells me I used to “insist” she pack salad in my lunchbox. Please leave me a comment below letting me know if you are also a big fan of BIG salads!

Anyhoo, I just made this Grilled Chicken Fajita Salad, and it is big. You will love it!

Creating This Chicken Fajita Salad Recipe

About this easy salad recipe: here is what I did. I used my favorite no-mess chicken marinade technique. It is a great trick, just peel the garlic, and then smash it in a re-sealable bag. Then add your chicken breast and pound that flat (check out the photos below in the recipe instructions).

Pounding the chicken flat inside the bag is super awesome because there is no mess, and the chicken will cook more evenly, so it won’t dry out. Then add in the rest of the marinade ingredients and some Mexican flavored seasonings. I used the Yucatecan Recado Rojo spice blend, but any Fajita seasoning blend will do.

Since I was cooking the chicken on the grill, I cooked the vegetables in a foil packet alongside it. Which means that there aren’t extra dishes to clean. The dressing has Greek yogurt and avocado in it so it is nice and creamy like a cross between creamy dressing and guacamole. First toss some with the greens, then just dollop it on top.

Did I mention this recipe is gluten-free? And because it has so much fiber, it actually has only 9 net carbs which makes it low-carb too!

Tips on How to Grill Chicken

Grilling meat can seem like a daunting task if you don’t have much experience with it. My biggest tip for making grilled chicken is to give it loads of flavor by using a marinade for at least an hour before cooking it. Chicken marinades (like the one I’m sharing in this recipe) often have an acidic component, like lemon or lime juice, plus salt, which help a bit to get the flavors of the marinade (spices and garlic) inside the chicken.

When you put the chicken on the grill, make sure not to overlap or overcrowd the chicken. You also want to flip the chicken only once during the grilling process, if possible. This will help the chicken cook evenly on each side, and will leave those lovely grill marks on the meat. Those grill marks aren’t just for aesthetics! They impart a lovely flavor onto the chicken that’s tough to replicate with spices.

Finally, after the chicken is taken off the grill, you want to let it rest on a plate for a good four or five minutes before slicing it. This will give the juices time to redistribute throughout the meat and will make for a more tender bite.

As long as you keep these few tips in mind when grilling the chicken for this fajita salad, you shouldn’t have any issues!

Instructions

Place garlic cloves in a large Ziploc bag, press air out and seal the bag. Smash garlic with the smooth side of a meat mallet.

Open bag and add chicken breasts. Press air out of bag and reseal. Pound meat through the bag until the thickest part of the breast is level with the thinnest, about 1/2-inch thick.

Open bag again and add tenders, 2 tablespoons oil, 1 tablespoon lime juice, 2 teaspoons Mexican spice mix, and ¾ teaspoon salt. Press out air and reseal bag and agitate until the chicken is coated in the marinade. Refrigerate 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Preheat grill to medium-high heat.

Mix peppers, onion and corn in a large bowl with 1 tablespoon oil, ¾ teaspoon salt and the remaining 2 teaspoons Mexican spice blend. Place two sheets measuring 12 by 22-inches of heavy-duty aluminum foil or a double layer of regular foil on work surface. Divide pepper and onion mixture into the center of the two foil sheets.

Fold into a flat packet and crimp edges closed.

Place vegetable packet on grill grate and cook, rotating and flipping occasionally until the peppers and onions are soft and starting to brown, 15 to 18 minutes. Remove chicken from marinade and discard marinade. Grill chicken until no-longer pink in the center, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Let rest about 5 minutes before slicing.

Toss Romaine with about 2/3 of the dressing and divide among four plates. Divide onion and pepper mixture over the lettuce. Top with grilled chicken. Dollop any remaning dressing over the salads. Dice the remaining ½ avocado and scatter over the salads. Garnish with cilantro leaves.

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Karyl, Sadly, I don’t have one. Do you? I get to have good Mexican food when my uncles from Texas are visiting, and then we’ll have a big taco party. Or I’ll make it myself. If you know of a good place I’d love a tip. -K

what an awesome recipe! I am GF so this is perfect! I really like your idea of smashing the garlic inside a bag and then doing the chicken the same way. Less mess is always better. We eat alot of Mexican inspired dishes at our house and I’d have to say my current favorite is shredded pork tacos (on the small corn ones you lightly pan fry in olive oil) with homemade pico. Yum! Thanks for the giveaway 🙂

I love this recipe! My favorite Mexican would have to be enchiladas and tamales. I have a question before I put this recipe to the test. The instructions say to add chicken and pound then add tenders. The ingredient list says chicken breast, then tenders after apostrophe. Are both included in this recipe. I am confused, but would like to try this recipe this weekend. I, too, love big salads. I never start a buffet with anything else.

Hi Julia, The chicken tenders are often still attached to the back of the chicken breast depending on which farm/ brand you buy it from. Since they are already thin, you don’t need to pound them. So they go into the bag after the breast is pounded. Hope that helps.

Thank you for a delicious recipe. My husband and I cooked for a church food event and took home some leftovers which included a bag of chopped romaine, grilled chicken, one red bell pepper, and cilantro. I cut up the cooked chicken which was a bit dry and marinated it in the seasoning with olive oil and lime juice. This salad was good, even using the leftovers. We will try it from scratch in the future.